Hard Cash by Charles Reade

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and Death's deep jaws snapping and barely missing--ten thousand greatslopes of emerald, aquamarine, amethyst and topaz, liquid, alive, anddancing jocundly beneath a gorgeous sun: and you will have a faint ideaof what met the eyes and hearts of the rescued looking out of thatbattered, jagged ship, upon ocean smiling back to smiling Heaven.

Yet one man felt no buoyancy, nor gush of joy. He leaned against afragment of the broken bulwark, confused between the sweetness of lifepreserved and the bitterness of treasure lost--his wife's and children'streasured treasure; benumbed at heart, and almost weary of the existencehe had battled for so stoutly. He looked so moody, and answered so grimlyand unlike himself, that they all held aloof from him; heavy heart amongso many joyful ones, he was in true solitude; the body in a crowd, thesoul alone. And he was sore as well as heavy; for of all the lubberlyacts he had ever known, the way he had lost his dear ones' fortune seemedto him the worst.

A voice sounded in his ear: "Poor thing! she has s foundered."

It was Fullalove scanning the horizon with his famous glass.

"Foundered? Who?" said Dodd; though he did not care much who sank, whoswam. Then he remembered the vessel, whose flashing guns had shed a humanray on the unearthly horror of the black hurricane. He looked all round.

Blank.

Ay, she had perished with all hands. The sea had swallowed her, andspared him--ungrateful.

This turned his mind sharply. Suppose the _Agra_ had gone down, the moneywould be lost as now, and his life into the bargain--a life dearer to allat home than millions of gold: he prayed inwardly to Heaven for gratitudeand goodness to feel its mercy. This softened him a little; and his heartswelled so, he wished he was a woman to cry over his children's loss foran hour, and then shake all off and go through his duty somehow; for nowhe was paralysed, and all seemed ended. Next, nautical superstitionfastened on him. That pocket-book of his was Jonah: it had to go or elsethe ship; the moment it did go, the storm had broken as by magic.

Now Superstition is generally stronger than rational Religion, whetherthey lie apart or together in one mind; and this superstitious notion didsomething toward steeling the poor man. "Come," said he to himself "myloss has saved all these poor souls on board this ship. So be it!Heaven's will be done! I must bustle, or else go mad."

He turned to and worked like a horse: and with his own hands helped themen to rig parallel ropes--a substitute for bulwarks--till theperspiration ran down him.

Bayliss now reported the well nearly dry, and Dodd was about to bear upand make sail again, when one of the ship-boys, a little fellow with abright eye and a chin like a monkey's, came up to him and said--

"Please, captain!" Then glared with awe at what he had done, and brokedown.

"Well, my little man?" said Dodd gently.

Thus encouraged, the boy gave a great gulp, and burst in in a brogue,"Och your arnr, sure there's no rudder on her at all barrin the tiller."

"What d'ye mean?"

"Don't murder me, your arnr, and I'll tell ye. It's meself looked overthe starrn just now; and I seen there was no rudder at all at all. Millediaoul, sis I; ye old bitch, I'll tell his arur what y'are after,slipping your rudder like my granny's list shoe, I will."

Dodd ran to the helm and looked down; the brat was right: the blows whichhad so endangered the ship, had broken the rudder, and the sea had washedaway more than half of it. The sight and the reflection made him faintishfor a moment. Death passing so very close to a man sickens him_afterwards,_ unless he has the luck to be brainless.

"What is your name, urchin?"

"Ned Murphy, sir."

"Very well, Murphy, then you are a fine little fellow, and have wiped allour eyes in the ship: run and send the carpenter aft."

"Ay, ay, sir."

The carpenter came. Like most artisans, he was clever in a groove: takehim out of that, and lo! a mule, a pig, an owl. He was not only unable toinvent, but so stiffly disinclined: a makeshift rudder was clean out ofhis way; and, as his whole struggle was to get away from every suggestionDodd made back to groove aforesaid, the thing looked hopeless. ThenFullalove, who had stood by grinning, offered to make a bunkum rudder,provided the carpenter and mates were put under his orders. "But" saidhe, "I must bargain they shall be disrated if they attempt to reason.""That is no more than fair," said Dodd. The Yankee inventor demanded aspare maincap, and cut away one end of the square piece, so as to make itfit the stem-post: through the circle of the cap he introduced a sparemizen topmast: to this he seized a length of junk, another to that,another to that, and so on: to the outside junk he seized a sparemaintop-gallant mast, and this conglomerate being now nearly as broad asa rudder, he planked over all. The sea by this time was calm; he got themachine over the stern, and had the square end of the cap bolted to thestern-post. He had already fixed four spans of nine-inch hawser to thesides of the makeshift, two fastened to tackles, which led into thegunroom ports, and were housed taut--these kept the lower part of themakeshift close to the stern post--and two, to which guys were now fixedand led through the aftermost ports on to the quarter-deck, whereluff-tackles were attached to them, by means of which the makeshift wasto be worked as a rudder.

Some sail was now got on the ship, and she was found to steer very well.Dodd tried her on every tack, and at last ordered Sharpe to make all sailand head for the Cape.

This electrified the first mate. The breeze was very faint but southerly,and the Mauritius under their lee. They could make it in a night andthere refit, and ship a new rudder. He suggested the danger of sailingsixteen hundred miles steered by a gimcrack; and implored Dodd to putinto port.

Dodd answered with a roughness and a certain wildness never seen in himbefore: "Danger, sir! There will be no more foul weather this voyage;Jonah is overboard." Sharpe stared an inquiry. "I tell you we shan'tlower our topgallants once from this to the Cape: Jonah is overboard:"and he slapped his forehead in despair; then, stamping impatiently withhis foot, told Sharpe his duty was to obey orders, not discuss them."Certainly, sir," said Sharpe sullenly, and went out of the cabin withserious thoughts of communicating to the other mates an alarmingsuspicion about Dodd, that now, for the first time, crossed his mind. Butlong habit of discipline prevailed, and he made all sail on the ship, andbore away for the Cape with a heavy heart. The sea was like a mill-pond,but in that he saw only its well-known treachery, to lead them on to thisunparalleled act of madness: each sail he hoisted seemed one more agentof Destruction rising at his own suicidal command.

Towards evening it became nearly dead calm. The sea heaved a little, butwas waveless, glassy, and the colour of a rose, incredibly brave anddelicate.

The look-out reported pieces of wreck to windward. As the ship was makingso little way, Dodd beat up towards them: he feared it was a British shipthat had foundered in the storm, and thought it his duty to ascertain andcarry the sad news home. In two tacks they got near enough to see withtheir glasses that the fragments belonged, not to a stranger, but to the_Agra_ herself. There was one of her waterbutts, and a broken mast withsome rigging: and as more wreck was descried coming in at a littledistance, Dodd kept the ship close to the wind to inspect it: on driftingnear, it proved to be several pieces of the bulwark, and a mahogany tableout of the cuddy This sort of flotsam was not worth delaying the ship topick it up; so Dodd made sail again, steering now south-east.

He had sailed about half a mile when the look-out hailed the deck again.

"A man in the water!"

"Whereabouts?"

"A short league on the weather quarter."

"Oh, we can't beat to windward for _him,_" said Sharpe; "he is dead longago."

"Holds his head very high for a corpse," said the look-out.

"I'll soon know," cried Dodd. "Lower the gig; I'll go myself."

The gig was lowered, and six swift rowers pulled him to windward, whilethe ship kept on her course.

It is most unusual for a captain to leave the ship at sea on such pettyerrands: but Dodd half hoped the man might be alive; and he was sounhappy; and, like his daughter, who probably derived the trait from him,grasped instinctively at a chance of doing kindness to some poor fellowalive or dead. That would soothe his own sore, good heart.

When they had pulled about two miles, the sun was sinking into thehorizon. "Give way, men," said Dodd, "or we shall not be able to seehim." The men bent to their oars and made the boat fly

Presently the coxswain caught sight of an object bobbing on the waterabeam.

"Why, that must be it," said he: "the lubber! to take it for a man'shead. Why, it is nothing but a thundering old bladder, speckled white."

"What?" cried Dodd, and fell a-trembling. "Steer for it! Give way!"

"Ay, ay, sir!"

They soon came alongside the bladder, and the coxswain grabbed it."Hallo! here's something lashed to it: a bottle!"

"Give it me!" gasped Dodd in a voice choked with agitation. "Give it me!Back to the ship! Fly! fly! Cut her off, or she'll give us the slip_now._"

He never spoke a word more, but sat in a stupor of joyful wonder.

They soon caught the ship; he got into his cabin, he scarce knew how:broke the bottle to atoms, and found the indomitable Cash uninjured. Withtrembling hands he restored it to its old place in his bosom, and sewedit tighter than ever.

Until he felt it there once more, he could hardly realise a stroke ofgood fortune that seemed miraculous--though, in reality, it was lessstrange than the way he had lost it;* but now, laid bodily on his heart,it set his bosom on fire. Oh, the bright eye, the bounding pulse, thebuoyant foot, the reckless joy! He slapped Sharpe on the back a littlevulgarly for him:--

"Jonah is on board again, old fellow: look out for squalls."

*The _Agra_, being much larger than the bottle, had drifted faster toleeward in the storm.

He uttered this foreboding in a tone of triumph, and with a gay elasticrecklessness, which harmonised so well with his makeshift rudder, thatSharpe groaned aloud, and wished himself under any captain in the worldbut this, and in any other ship. He looked round to make sure he was notwatched, and then tapped his forehead significantly. This somewhatrelieved him, and he did his duty smartly for a man going to the bottomwith his eyes open.

But ill luck is not to be bespoken any more than good: the _Agra's_seemed to have blown itself out; the wind veered to the south-west, andbreathed steadily in that quarter for ten days. The topgallant sails werenever lowered nor shifted day nor night all that time, and not a singledanger occurred between this and the Cape, except to a monkey, which Ifear I must relate, on account of its remoter consequences. One fineafternoon, everybody was on deck amusing themselves as they could: Mrs.Beresford, to wit, was being flattered under the Poop awning by Kenealy.The feud between her and Dodd continued, but under a false impression.The lady had one advantage over the gentler specimens of her sex; she wasnever deterred from a kind action by want of pluck, as they are. Pluck?Aquilina was brimful of it. When she found Dodd was wounded, she cast herwrongs to the wind, and offered to go and nurse him. Her message came atan unlucky moment, and by an unlucky messenger: the surgeon said hastily,"I can't have him bothered." The stupid servant reported, "He can't beworried;" and Mrs. Beresford, thinking Dodd had a hand in this answer,was bitterly mortified; and with some reason. She would have forgivenhim, though, if he had died; but, as he lived, she thought she had aright to detest him, and did; and showed her sentiments like a lady, bynever speaking to him, nor looking at him, but ignoring him with frigidmagnificence on his own quarter-deck.

Now, among the crew of this ship was a favourite goat, good-tempered,affectionate, and playful; but a single vice counterbalanced all hisvirtues: he took a drop. A year or two ago some light-hearted temptertaught him to sip grog; he took to it kindly, and was now arrived at sucha pitch that at grog-time he used to butt his way in among the sailors,and get close to the canteen; and, -by arrangement, an allowance wasalways served out to him. On imbibing it, he passed with quadrupedalrapidity through three stages, the absurd, the choleric, the sleepy; andwas never his own goat again until he awoke from the latter. Now MasterFred Beresford encountered him in the second stage of inebriety, and,being a rough playfellow, tapped his nose with a battledore. InstantlyBilly butted at him; mischievous Fred screamed and jumped on thebulwarks. Pot-angry Billy went at him there; whereupon the younggentleman, with all eldrich screech, and a comparative estimate of perilsthat smacked of inexperience, fled into the sea, at the very moment whenhis anxious mother was rushing to save him. She uttered a scream ofagony, and would actually have followed him, but was held back, utteringshriek after shriek, that pierced every heart within hearing.

But Dodd saw the boy go overboard, and vaulted over the bulwark near thehelm, roared in the very air, "Heave the ship to!" and went splash intothe water about ten yards from the place. He was soon followed byVespasian, and a boat was lowered as quickly as possible. Dodd caughtsight of a broad straw hat on the top of a wave, swam lustily to it, andfound Freddy inside: it was tied under his chin, and would have floatedGoliath. Dodd turned to the ship, saw the poor mother with white face andarms outstretched as if she would fly at them, and held the urchin uphigh to her with a joyful "hurrah." The ship seemed alive and to hurrahin return with giant voice: the boat soon picked them up, and Dodd cameup the side with Freddy in his arms, and placed him in his mother's withhonest pride and deep parental sympathy.

Guess how she scolded and caressed her child all in a breath, and sobbedover him! For this no human pen has ever told, nor ever will. All I canjust manage to convey is that, after she had all but eaten the littletorment, she suddenly dropped him, and made a great maternal rush atDodd. She flung her arms round him, and kissed him eagerly, almostfiercely: then, carried away wild by mighty Nature, she patted him allover in the strangest way, and kissed his waistcoat, his arms, his hands,and rained tears of joy and gratitude on them.

Dodd was quite overpowered. "No! no!" said he. "Don't now, pray, don't!There! there! I know, my dear, I know; I'm a father." And he was verynear whimpering himself; but recovered the man and the commander, andsaid, soothingly, "There! there!" and he handed her tenderly down to hercabin.

All this time he had actually forgotten the packet. But now a horriblefear came on him. He hurried to his own cabin and examined it. A littlesalt water had oozed through the bullet-hole and discoloured the leather;but that was all.

He breathed again.

"Thank Heaven I forgot all about it!" said he: "it would have made a curof me."

Lady Beresford's petty irritation against Dodd melted at once-- before sogreat a thing: she longed to make friends with him; but for once felttimid. It struck her now all of a sudden that she had been misbehaving.However, she caught Dodd alone on the deck, and said to him softly, "Iwant so to end our quarrel."

"Our quarrel, madam!" said he; "why, I know of none: oh, about the lighteh? Well, you see the master of a ship is obliged to be a tyrant in somethings."

"I make no complaint," said the lady hastily, and hung her head. "All Iask you is to forgive one who has behaved like a fool, without even theexcuse of being one; and--will you give me your hand, sir?"

"Ay, and with all my heart," said Dodd warmly, enclosing the soft littlehand in his honest grasp.

And with no more ado these two highflyers ended one of those littlemisunderstandings petty spirits nurse into a feud.

The ship being in port at the Cape, and two hundred hammers tapping ather, Dodd went ashore in search of Captain Robarts, and made the _Agra_over to him in the friendliest way, adding warmly that he had found everyreason to be satisfied with the officers and the crew. To his surprise,Captain Robarts received all this ungraciously. "You ought to haveremained on board, sir, and made me over the command on thequarter-deck." Dodd replied politely that it would have been more formal."Suppose I return immediately, and man the side for you: and then youboard her, say, in half-an-hour?"

"I shall come when I like," replied Robarts crustily.

"And when will you like to come?" inquired Dodd, with imperturbablegood-humour.

"Now, this moment: and I'll trouble you to come along with me."

"Certainly, sir."

They got a boat and went out to the ship: on coming alongside, Doddthought to meet his wishes by going first and receiving him. But thejealous, cross-grained fellow, shoved roughly before him and led the wayup the ship's side. Sharpe and the rest saluted him: he did not returnthe salute, but said hoarsely, "Turn the hands up to muster."

When they were all aft, he noticed one or two with their caps on. "Hatsoff and be ---- to you!" cried he. "Do you know where you are? Do youknow who you are looking at? If not, I'll show you. I'm here to restorediscipline to this ship: so mind how you run athwart my hawse: don't youplay with the bull, my men; or you'll find his horns ---- sharp. Pipedown! Now, you, sir, bring me the log-book."

He ran his eye over it, and closed it contemptuously: "Pirates, andhurricanes! _I_ never fell in with pirates nor hurricanes: I have heardof a breeze, and a gale, but I never knew a seaman worth his salt say'hurricane.' Get another log-book, Mr. Sharpe; put down that it beginsthis day at noon; and enter that Captain Robarts came on deck, found theship in a miserable condition, took the command, mustered the officersand men, and stopped the ship's company's grog for a week for receivinghim with hats on."

Even Sharpe, that walking Obedience, was taken aback. "Stop--the ship'scompany's--grog--for a week, sir?"

"Yes, sir, for a week; and if you fling my orders back in my face insteadof clapping on sail to execute them, I'll have you towed ashore on agrating. Your name is Sharpe; well my name is Dammedsharpe, and so you'llfind."

In short, the new captain came down on the ship like a blight.

He was especially hard on Dodd: nothing that commander had done wasright, nor, had he done the contrary, would that have been right: he wasdisgracefully behind time; and he ought to have put in to the Isle ofFrance, which would have retarded him: his rope bulwarks were lubberly:his rudder a disgrace to navigation: he, Robarts, was not so green as tobelieve that any master had really sailed sixteen hundred miles with it,and if he had, more shame for him. Briefly, a marine criticaster.

All this was spoken _at_ Dodd--a thing no male does unless he is an awfulsnob--and grieved him, it was so unjust. He withdrew wounded to thelittle cabin he was entitled to as a passenger, and hugged his treasurefor comfort. He patted the pocket-book, and said to it, "Never _you_mind! The greater Tartar he is, the less likely to sink you or run you ona lee shore."

With all his love of discipline, Robarts was not so fond of the ship asDodd.

While his repairs were going on he was generally ashore, and by thismeans missed a visit. Commodore Collier, one of the smartest sailorsafloat, espied the Yankee makeshift from the quarter-deck of his vessel,the _Salamanca,_ fifty guns. In ten minutes he was under the _Agra's_stern inspecting it; then came on board, and was received in form bySharpe and the other officers. "Are you the master of this ship, sir?" heasked.

"No, commodore. I am the first mate: the captain is ashore."

"I am sorry for it. I want to talk about his rudder."

"Oh, _he_ had nothing to do with that," replied Sharpe, eagerly: "thatwas our dear old captain: he is on board. Young gentleman! ask CaptainDodd to oblige me by coming on deck! Hy! and Mr. Fullalove too."

Dodd and Fullalove came on deck, and Commodore Collier bestowed thehighest compliments on the "makeshift." Dodd begged him to transfer themto the real inventor, and introduced Fullalove.

"Ay," said Collier, "I know you Yankees are very handy. I lost my rudderat sea once, and had to ship a makeshift; but it was a cursed complicatedthing, not a patch upon yours, Mr. Fullalove. Yours is ingenious and_simple._ Ship has been in action, I see: pray how was that, if I may beso bold?"

"Pirates, commodore," said Sharpe. "We fell in with a brace of Portuguesedevils, lateen-rigged, and carrying ten guns apiece, in the Straits ofGaspar: fought 'em from noon till sundown, riddled one, and ran down theother, and sunk her in a moment. That was all your doing, Captain: sodon't try to shift it on other people; for we won't stand it."

"If he denies it, I won't believe him," said Collier, "for he has got itin his eye. Gentlemen, will you do me the honour to dine with me to-dayon board the flag-ship?"

Dodd and Fullalove accepted. Sharpe declined, with regret, on the scoreof duty. And as the cocked hat went down the side, after saluting himpolitely, he could not help thinking to himself what a difference betweena real captain, who had something to be proud of, and his own unlickedcub of a skipper with the manners of a pilot-boat. He told Robarts thenext day: Robarts said nothing, but his face seemed to turn greenish, andit embittered his hatred of Dodd the inoffensive.

It is droll, and sad, but true, that Christendom is full of men in ahurry to hate. And a fruitful cause is jealousy. The schoolmen, or rathercertain of the schoolmen--for nothing is much shallower than to speak ofall those disputants as one school--defined woman, "a featherless bipedvehemently addicted to jealousy." Whether she is more featherless thanthe male can be decided at a trifling expense of time, money, and reason:you have but to go to court. But as for envy and jealousy, I think it ispure, unobservant, antique Cant which has fixed them on the femalecharacter distinctively. As a molehill to a mountain is women's jealousyto men's. Agatha may have a host of virtues and graces, and yet herfemale acquaintance will not hate her, provided she has the moderation toabstain from being downright pretty. She may sing like an angel, paintlike an angel, talk, write, nurse the sick, all like an angel, and notrouse the devil in her fair sisters, so long as she does not dress likean angel. But the minds of men being much larger than women's, yet verylittle greater, they hang jealousy on a thousand pegs. Where there was nopeg, I have seen them do with a pin.

Captain Robarts took a pin, ran it into his own heart, and hung thatsordid passion on it.

He would get rid of all the Doddites before he sailed. He insulted Mr.Tickell, so that he left the service and entered a mercantile houseashore: he made several of the best men desert, and the ship went to seashort of hands. This threw heavier work on the crew, and led to manypunishments and a steady current of abuse. Sharpe became a mere machine,always obeying, never speaking: Grey was put under arrest forremonstrating against ungentlemanly language; and Bayliss, being atbottom of the same breed as Robarts, fell into his humour, and helpedhector the petty officers and men. The crew, depressed and irritated,went through their duties pully-hauly-wise. There was no song under theforecastle in the first watch, and often no grog on the mess table at onebell. Dodd never came on the quarter-deck without being reminded he wasonly a passenger, and the ship was now under naval discipline. _"I_ wasreared in the royal navy, sir," would Robarts say, "second lieutenantaboard the _Atalanta:_ that is the school, sir, that is the only schoolthat breeds seamen." Dodd bore scores of similar taunts as a Newfoundlandputs up with a terrier in office: he seldom replied, and, when he did, ina few quiet dignified words that gave no handle.

Robarts, who bore the name of a lucky captain, had fair weather all theway to St. Helena.

The guard-ship at this island was the _Salamanca._ She had left the Capea week before the _Agra._ Captain Robarts, with his characteristicgood-breeding, went to anchor in-shore of Her Majesty's ship: the windfailed at a critical moment, and a foul became inevitable. Collier was onhis quarter-deck, and saw what would happen long before Robarts did; hegave the needful orders, and it was beautiful to see how in half a minutethe frigate's guns were run in, her ports lowered, her yards toppled onend, and a spring carried out and hauled on.

The _Agra_ struck abreast her own forechains on the _Salamanca's_quarter.

(Pipe.) "Boarders away. Tomahawks! cut everything that holds!" was heardfrom the frigate's quarter-deck. Rush came a boarding party on to themerchant ship and hacked away without mercy all her lower rigging thatheld on to the frigate, signal halyards and all; others boomed her offwith capstan bars, &c., and in two minutes the ships were clear. Alieutenant and boat's crew came for Robarts, and ordered him on board the_Salamanca,_ and, to make sure of his coming, took him back with them. Hefound Commodore Collier standing stiff as a ramrod on his quarter-deck."Are you the master of the _Agra?_" (His quick eye had recognised her ina moment.)

"I am, sir."

"Then she was commanded by a seaman, and is now commanded by a lubber.Don't apply for your papers this week; for you won't get them. Goodmorning. Take him away."

They returned Robarts to his ship, and a suppressed grin on a score offaces showed him the clear commanding tones of the commodore had reachedhis own deck. He soothed himself by stopping the men's grog andmast-heading three midshipmen that same afternoon.

The night before he weighed anchor this disciplinarian was drinking verylate in a low public-house. There was not much moon, and the officer incharge of the ship did not see the gig coming till it was nearlyalongside: then all was done in a flurry.

The boys did jump, and little Murphy, not knowing the surgeon had orderedthe ports to be drooped, bounded over the bulwarks like an antelope,lighted on the midship port, which stood at this angle /, and glanced offinto the ocean, lantern foremost: he made his little hole in the waterwithin a yard of' Captain Robarts. That Dignity, though splashed, took nonotice of so small an incident as a gone ship-boy: and if Murphy had beenwise and stayed with Nep. all had been well. But the poor urchininadvertently came up again, and without the lantern. One of the gig'screw grabbed him by the hair, and prolonged his existence by aninconsiderate impulse.

"Where is the other lantern?" was Robarts' first word on reaching thedeck: as if he didn't know.

"Gone overboard, sir, with the boy Murphy."

"Stand forward, you, sir," growled Robarts.

Murphy stood forward, dripping and shivering with cold and fear.

"What d'ye mean by going overboard with the ship's lantern?"

"Och, your arnr, sure some unasy divil drooped the port; and the lanternand me we had no foothold at all at all, and the lantern went into thesay, bad luck to ut; and I went afther to try and save ut--for yourarnr."

"Belay all that!" said Robarts; "do you think you can blarney me, youyoung monkey? Here, Bosen's mate, take a rope's-end and starthim!--Again!--Warm him well!--That's right."

As soon as the poor child's shrieks subsided into sobs, thedisciplinarian gave him Explanation for Ointment: "I can't have theCompany's stores expended this way."

The force of discipline could no farther go than to flog zeal for fallingoverboard: so, to avoid anticlimax in that port, Robarts weighed anchorat daybreak; and there was a southwesterly breeze waiting for thisfavourite of fortune, and carried him past the Azores. Off Ushant it waswesterly, and veered to the nor'-west just before they sighted the Land'sEnd: never was such a charming passage from the Cape. The sailor who hadthe luck to sight Old England first nailed his starboard shoe to themainmast for contributions; and all hearts beat joyfully--none more thanDavid Dodd's. His eye devoured the beloved shore: he hugged the treasurehis own ill luck had jeopardised--but Robarts had sailed it safe intoBritish waters--and forgave the man his ill manners for his good luck.

Robarts steered in for the Lizard; but, when abreast the Point, kept wellout again, and opened the Channel and looked out for a pilot

One was soon seen working out towards him, and the _Agra_ brought to. Thepilot descended from his lugger into his little boat, rowed alongside,and came on deck; a rough, tanned sailor, clad in flushing, and in buildand manner might have passed for Robarts' twin brother.

"Now then, you, sir, what will you take this ship up to the Downs for?"

"Thirty pounds."

Roberts told him roughly he would not get thirty pounds out of' _him._

"Thyse and no higher, my Bo," answered the pilot sturdily: he had beensplicing the main brace, and would have answered an admiral.

Robarts swore at him lustily: Pilot discharged a volley in return withadmirable promptitude. Robarts retorted, the other rough customerrejoined, and soon all Billingsgate thundered on the _Agra's_quarter-deck. Finding, to his infinite disgust, his visitor as great ablackguard as himself, and not to be outsworn, Robarts ordered him toquit the ship on pain of being man-handled over the side.

"Oh, that's it, is it?" growled the other: "here's fill and be off then."He prudently bottled the rest of his rage till he got safe into his boat,then shook his fist at the _Agra_, and cursed her captain sky-high. "Yousee the fair wind, but you don't see the Channel fret a-coming, ye greedygander. Downs! You'll never see them: you have saved your ---- money, andlost your ---- ship, ye ---- lubber."

Robarts hurled back a sugar-plum or two of the same and then orderedBayliss to clap on all sail, and keep a mid-channel course through thenight.

At four bells in the middle watch, Sharpe, in charge of the ship, tappedat Robarts' door. "Blowing hard, sir, and the weather getting thickish."

"Wind fair still?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then call me if it blows any harder," grunted Robarts.

In two hours more, tap, tap, came Bayliss, in charge. "If we don't takesail in, they'll take themselves out."

"Furl to-gallen'sels, and call me if it gets any worse."

In another hour Bayliss was at him again. "Blowing a gale, sir, and aChannel fog on."

"Reef taupsles, and call me if it gets any worse."

At daybreak Dodd was on deck, and found the ship flying through a fog sothick that her forecastle was quite invisible from the poop, and even herforemast loomed indistinct and looked distant. "You'll be foul ofsomething or other, Sharpe," said he.

"Then do pray handle her yourself; captain! Is this weather to go tearinghappy-go-lucky up the Channel?"

"I mean to sail her without your advice, sir; and, being a seaman, Ishall get all I can out of a fair wind."

"That is right Captain Robarts, if you had but the British Channel all toyourself."

"Perhaps you will leave me my deck all to myself."

"I should be delighted: but my anxiety will not let me." With this Doddretired a few steps, and kept a keen look-out.

At noon a lusty voice cried "Land on the weather beam!"

All eyes were turned that way and saw nothing.

Land in sight was reported to Captain Robarts.

Now that worthy was in reality getting secretly anxious: so he ran ondeck crying, "Who saw it?"

"Captain Dodd, sir."

"Ugh! Nobody else?"

Dodd came forward, and, with a respectful air, told him that, being onthe look-out, he had seen the coast of the Isle of Wight in a momentarylift of the haze.

"Isle of Fiddlestick!" was the polite reply; "Isle of Wight is eightymiles astern by now."

Dodd answered firmly that he was well acquainted with every outline inthe Channel, and that the land he had seen was St. Katherine's Point

Robarts deigned no reply, but had the log heaved: it showed the vessel tobe running twelve knots an hour. He then went to his cabin and consultedhis chart; and, having worked his problem, came hastily on deck, and wentfrom rashness to wonderful caution. "Turn the hands out, and heave theship to!"

The manoeuvre was executed gradually and ably, and scarce a bucketful ofwater shipped. "Furl taupsles and set the main trysail! There, Mr. Dodd,so much for you and your Isle of Wight. The land you saw was Dungeness,and _you_ would have run on into the North Sea, I'll be bound."

When a man, habitually calm, turns anxious, he becomes more irritable;and the mixture of timidity and rashness he saw in Robarts made Dodd veryanxious.

He replied angrily, "At all events, I should not make a foul wind out ofa fair one by heaving to; and if I did, I would heave to on the righttack."

At this sudden facer--one, too, from a patient man--Robarts staggered amoment. He recovered, and with an oath ordered Dodd to go below, or hewould have him chucked into the hold.

"Come, don't be an ass, Robarts," said Dodd contemptuously.

Then, lowering his voice to a whisper, "Don't you know the men only wantsuch an order as that to chuck you into the sea?"

Robarts trembled. "Oh, if you mean to head a mutiny----"

"Heaven forbid, sir! But I won't leave the deck in dirty weather likethis till the captain knows where he is."

Towards sunset it got clearer, and they drifted past a revenue cutter,who was lying to with her head to the northward. She hoisted no end ofsignals, but they understood none of them, and her captain gesticulatedwildly on her deck.

"To see a first-class ship drift to leeward in a narrow sea with a fairwind," said Dodd bitterly.

At night it blew hard, and the sea ran high and irregular. The ship beganto be uneasy, and Robarts very properly ordered the top-gallant and royalyards to be sent down on deck. Dodd would have had them down twelve hoursago. The mate gave the order: no one moved. The mate went forward angry.He came back pale. The men refused to go aloft: they would not risk theirlives for Captain Robarts.

The officers all assembled and went forward: they promised andthreatened; but all in vain. The crew stood sullen together, as if toback one another, and put forward a spokesman to say that "there was notone of them the captain hadn't started, and stopped his grog a dozentimes: he had made the ship hell to them; and now her masts and yards andhull might go there along with her skipper, for them."

Robarts received this tidings in sullen silence. "Don't tell that Dodd,whatever you do," said he. "They will come round now they have had theirgrowl: they are too near home to shy away their pay."

Robarts had not sufficient insight into character to know that Dodd wouldinstantly have sided with him against a mutiny.

But at this juncture the ex-captain of the _Agra_ was down in the cabinwith his fellow-passengers, preparing a general remonstrance: he had achart before him, and a pair of compasses in his hand.

"St. Katherine's Point lay about eight miles to windward at noon; and wehave been drifting south and east this twelve hours, through lying to onthe starboard tack; and besides, the ship has been conned as slovenly asshe is sailed. I've seen her allowed to break off a dozen times, andgather more leeway. Ah! here is Captain Robarts. Captain, you saw therate we passed the revenue cutter. That vessel was nearly stationary; sowhat we passed her at was our own rate of drifting, and our least rate.Putting all this together, we can't be many miles from the French coast,and, unless we look sharp and beat to windward, I pronounce the ship indanger."

"There!" cried Robarts with an oath: "foul of _her_ next! through melistening to your nonsense. He ran upon deck, and shouted through histrumpet, "All hands wear ship!"

The crew, who had heard the previous cry, obeyed orders in the presenceof an immediate danger; and perhaps their growl had really relieved theirill-humour. Robarts with delight saw them come tumbling up, and gave hisorders lustily: "Brail up the trysel! up with the helm! in with theweather main brace! square the after yards!"

The ship's bow turned from the wind, and, as soon as she got way on her,Robarts ran below again, and entered the cabin triumphant

"That is all right: and now, Captain Dodd, a word with you. You willeither retire at once to your cabin, or will cease to breed disaffectionin my crew, and groundless alarm in my passengers, by instilling your ownchildish, ignorant fears. The ship has been underlogged a hundred miles,sir; and but for my caution in lying to for clear weather we should begroping among the Fern Isl----"

CRASH!

An unheard-of shock threw the speaker and all the rest in a mass on thefloor, smashed every lamp, put out every light; and, with a fiercegrating noise, the ship was hard and fast on the French coast, with herstern to the sea.

One awful moment of silence; then, amidst shrieks of agony, the seastruck her like a rolling rock, solid to crush, liquid to drown, and thecomb of a wave smashed the cabin windows and rushed in among them as theyfloundered on the floor, and wetted and chilled them to the marrow. Avoice in the dark cried, "O God! we are dead men."

CHAPTER XIV

"ON deck for your lives!" cried Dodd, forgetting in that awful moment hewas not the captain; and drove them all up, Robarts included, and caughthold of Mrs. Beresford and Freddy at their cabin door and half carriedthem with him. Just as they got on deck the third wave, a high one,struck the ship and lifted her bodily up, canted her round, and dashedher down again some yards to leeward, throwing them down on the hard andstreaming deck.

At this tremendous shock the ship seemed a live thing, shrieking andwailing, as well as quivering with the blow.

But one voice dissented loudly from the general dismay. "All right men,"cried Dodd, firm and trumpet-like. "She is broadside on now. CaptainRobarts, look alive, sir; speak to the men! don't go to sleep!"

Robarts was in a lethargy of fear. At this appeal he started into a furyof ephemeral courage. "Stick to the ship," he yelled; "there is no dangerif you stick to the ship," and with this snatched a life-buoy, and hurledhimself into the sea.

Dodd caught up the trumpet that fell from his hand and roared, "I commandthis ship. Officers come round me! Men to your quarters! Come, bear ahand here and fire a gun. That will show us where we are, and let theFrenchmen know."

The carronade was fired, and its momentary flash revealed that the shipwas ashore in a little bay; the land abeam was low and some eighty yardsoff; but there was something black and rugged nearer the ship's stern.

Their situation was awful. To windward huge black waves rose liketremendous ruins, and came rolling, fringed with devouring fire; and eachwave as it charged them, curled up to an incredible height and dasheddown on the doomed ship--solid to crush, liquid to drown --with aponderous stroke that made the poor souls stagger, and sent a sheet ofwater so clean over her that part fell to leeward, and only part camedown on deck, foretaste of a watery death; and each of these fearfulblows drove the groaning, trembling vessel farther on the sand, bumpingher along as if she had been but a skiff.

Now it was men showed their inner selves.

Seeing Death so near on one hand, and a chance of escape on the other,seven men proved unable to resist the two great passions of Fear and Hopeon a scale so gigantic and side by side. Bayliss, a midshipman, and fivesailors stole the only available boat and lowered her.

She was swamped in a moment

Many of the crew got to the rum, and stupefied themselves to theirdestruction.

Others rallied round their old captain, and recovered their nativecourage at the brave and hopeful bearing he wore over a heart full ofanguish. He worked like a horse, encouraging, commanding, doing; heloaded a carronade with a pound of powder and a coil of rope, with aniron bar attached to a cable, and shot the rope and bar ashore.

A gun was now fired from the guard-house, whose light Robarts had takenfor a ship. But no light being shown any nearer on the coast, and theship expected every minute to go to pieces, Dodd asked if any one wouldtry to swim ashore with a line made fast to a hawser on board.

A sailor offered to go if any other man would risk his life along withhim. Instantly Fullalove stripped, and Vespasian next

"Two is enough on such a desperate errand," said Dodd with a groan.

But now emulation was up, and neither Briton, Yankee, nor negro wouldgive way. A line was made fast to the sailor's waist, and he was loweredto leeward; his venturesome rivals followed. The sea swallowed thosethree heroes like crumbs, and small was the hope of life for them.

The three heroes being first-rate swimmers and divers, and going with thetide, soon neared the shore on the ship's lee quarter; but a sight of itwas enough: to attempt to land on that rock with such a sea on was to gettheir skulls smashed like eggshells in a moment. They had to coast it,looking out for a soft place.

They found one, and tried to land; but so irresistible was the suction ofthe retiring wave, that, whenever they got foot on the sand, and tried torun, they were wrenched out to sea again, and pounded black and blue andbreathless by the curling breaker they met coming in.

After a score of vain efforts, the negro, throwing himself on his back,went in with a high wave, and, on touching the sand, turned, dug all histen claws into it clenched his teeth, and scrambled like a cat at a wall.Having more power in his toes than the Europeans, and luckily getting onehand on a firm stone, his prodigious strength just enabled him to stickfirst while the wave went back; and then, seizing the moment, he torehimself ashore, but bleeding and bruised all over, and with a toothactually broken by clenching in the convulsive struggle.

He found some natives dancing about in violent agitation with a rope, butafraid to go in and help him; and no wonder, not being seagulls. By thelight of their lanterns, he saw Fullalove washing in and out like a log.He seized one end of the rope, and dashed in and grabbed his friend, andthey were hauled ashore together, both breathless, and Fullalovespeechless

The negro looked round for the sailor, but could not see him. Soon,however, there was a cry from some more natives about fifty yards off andlaterns held up; away he dashed with the rope just in time to see Jackmake a last gallant attempt to land. It ended in his being flung up likea straw into the air on the very crest of a wave fifteen feet high, andout to sea with his arms whirling, and a death shriek which was echoed byevery woman within hearing.

In dashed Vespasian with the rope, and gripped the drowning man's longhair with his teeth: then jerked the rope, and they were both pulledashore with infinite difficulty. The good-natured Frenchmen gave them allthree lots of _vivats_ and brandy and pats on the back, and carried theline for them to a flagstaff on the rocks nearer the stern of the ship.

The ship began to show the first signs of breaking up: hammered to deathby the sea, she discharged the oakum from her opening seams, and herdecks began to gape and grin fore and aft. Corpses of drunken sailorsdrowned between decks now floated up amidships, and washed and rolledabout among the survivors' feet These, seeing no hope, went about makingup all quarrels, and shaking hands in token of a Christian end. One ortwo came to Dodd with their hands out.

"Avast ye lubbers!" said he angrily; "do you think I have time fornonsense? Foksel ahoy! axes, and cut the weather shrouds!"

It was done; the foremast went by the board directly, and fell toleeward: a few blows of the axe from Dodd's own hand sent the mainmastafter it.

The _Agra_ rose a streak; and the next wave carried her a little fartheron shore.

And now the man in charge of the hawser reported with joy that there wasa strain on it.

This gave those on board a hope of life. Dodd bustled and had the hawsercarefully payed out by two men, while he himself secured the other end inthe mizen top: he had left that mast standing on purpose.

There was no fog here; but great heavy black clouds flying about withamazing swiftness extinguished the moon at intervals: at others sheglimmered through a dull mist in which she was veiled, and gave the poorsouls on the _Agra_ a dim peep of the frail and narrow bridge they mustpass to live. A thing like a black snake went down from the mizen-top,bellying towards the yawning sea, and soon lost to sight: it was seenrising again among some lanterns on the rock ashore: but what became ofit in the middle? The darkness seemed to cut it in two; the sea toswallow it. Yet, to get from a ship going to pieces under them, thesailors precipitated themselves eagerly on that black thread bellying tothe sea and flickering in the wind. They went down it, one after another,and anxious eyes straining after them saw them no more: but this wasseen, that scarce one in three emerged into the lights ashore.

Then Dodd got an axe, and stood in the top, and threatened to brain thefirst man who attempted to go on the rope.

"We must make it taut first," said he; "bear a hand here with a tackle."

Even while this was being done, the other rope, whose end he had firedashore, was seen moving to windward. The natives, it seems, had found it,half buried in sand.

Dodd unlashed the end from the bulwarks and carried it into the top, andmade it fast: and soon there were two black snakes dipping shrorewardsand waving in the air side by side.

The sailors scrambled for a place, and some of them were lost by theirown rashness. Kenealy waited coolly, and went by himself.

Finally, Dodd was left in the ship with Mr. Sharpe and the women, andlittle Murphy, and Ramgolam, whom Robarts had liberated to show hiscontempt of Dodd.

He now advised Mrs. Beresford to be lashed to Sharpe and himself, andventure the passage; but she screamed and clung to him, and said, "I darenot! oh I dare not!"

"Then I must lash you to a spar," said he, "for she can't last muchlonger." He ordered Sharpe ashore. Sharpe shook hands with him, and wenton the rope with tears in his eyes.

Dodd went hard to work, lashed Mrs. Beresford to a piece of brokenwater-butt: filled Fred's pockets with corks and sewed them up (you nevercaught Dodd without a needle; only, unlike the women's, it was alwayskept threaded). Mrs. Beresford threw her arms round his neck and kissedhim wildly: a way women have in mortal peril: it is but their homage tocourage. "All right!" said Dodd, interpreting it as appeal to hisprotection, and affecting cheerfulness: "we'll get ashore together on thepoop awning, or somehow; never you fear. I'd give a thousand pounds toknow where high water is."

At this moment, with a report like a cannon, the lower decks burst foreand aft: another still louder, and the _Agra's_ back broke. She partedamidships with a fearful yawn, and the waves went toppling and curlingclean through her.

At this appalling sound and sight, the few creatures left on the poopcowered screaming and clinging at Dodd's knees, and fought for a bit ofhim.

Yes, as a flood brings incongruous animals together on some little islein brotherhood of fear--creatures who never met before without one eatingthe other; and there they cuddle--so the thief Ramgolam clung to the manhe had tried to rob; the Hindoo Ayan and the English maid hustled theirmistress, the haughty Mrs. Beresford, and were hustled by her, for a bitof this human pillar; and little Murphy and Fred Beresford wriggled in athim where they could: and the poor goat crept into the quivering masstrembling like an aspen, and not a butt left either in his head or hisheart. Dodd stood in the middle of these tremblers, a rock of manhood:and when he was silent and they heard only the voice of the waves, theydespaired; and whenever he spoke, they started at the astounding calmnessof his voice and words, and life sounded possible.

"Come," said he, "this won't do any longer. All hands into themizen-top!"

He helped them all up, and stood on the ratlines himself: and, if youwill believe me, the poor goat wailed like a child below. He found inthat new terror and anguish a voice goat was never heard to speak inbefore. But they had to leave him on deck: no help for it. Dodd advisedMrs. Beresford once more to attempt the rope: she declined. "I dare not!I dare not!" she cried, but she begged Dodd hard to go on it and savehimself.

It was a strong temptation: he clutched the treasure in his bosom, andone sob burst from the strong man.

That sob was but the tax paid by Nature; for pride, humanity, and manhoodstood staunch in spite of it. "No, no, I can't," said he "I mustn't.Don't tempt me to leave you in this plight, and be a cur! Live or die, Imust be the last man on her. Here's something coming out to us, the Lordin Heaven be praised!"

A bright light was seen moving down the black line that held them to theshore; it descended slowly within a foot of the billows, and lightingthem up showed their fearful proximity to the rope in mid-passage: theyhad washed off many a poor fellow at that part.

"Look at that! Thank Heaven you did not try it!" said Dodd to Mrs.Beresford.

At tins moment a higher wave than usual swallowed up the light: there wasa loud cry of dismay from the shore, and a wail of despair from the ship.

No! not lost after all! The light emerged, and mounted, and mountedtowards the ship.

It came near, and showed the black shiny body of Vespasian, with verylittle on but a handkerchief and a lantern--the former round his waist,and the latter lashed to his back: he arrived with a "Yah! yah!" andshowed his white teeth in a grin.

"Iss, Missy, dis child bring good news. Cap'n! Massah Fullalove send youhis congratulations, and the compliments of the season; and take theliberty to observe the tide am turn in twenty minutes."

The good news thus quaintly announced caused an outburst of joy fromDodd, and, sailor-like, he insisted on all hands joining in a cheer. Theshore re-echoed it directly. And this encouraged the forlorn band stillmore; to hear other hearts beating for them so near. Even the interveningwaves could not quite annul the sustaining power of sympathy.

At this moment came the first faint streaks of welcome dawn, and revealedtheir situation more fully.

The vessel lay on the edge of a sandbank. She was clean in two, the sternlying somewhat higher than the stem. The sea rolled through her amidshipssix feet broad, frightful to look at, and made a clean breach over herforward, all except the bowsprit to the end of which the poor sailorswere now discovered to be clinging. The afterpart of the poop was out ofwater, and in a corner of it the goat crouched like a rabbit: four deadbodies washed about beneath the party trembling in the mizen-top, and onehad got jammed in the wheel, face uppermost and glared up at them, gazingterror-stricken down.

No sign of the tide turning yet, and much reason to fear it would turntoo late for them and the poor fellows shivering on the bowsprit.

These fears were well founded.

A huge sea rolled in, and turned the forepart of the vessel half over,buried the bowsprit, and washed the men off into the breakers.

Mrs. Beresford sank down, and prayed, holding Vespasian by the knee.

Fortunately, as in that vessel wrecked long syne on Melita, "the hindpart of the ship stuck fast and remained immovable."

But for how long?

Each wave now struck the ship's weather quarter with a sound like acannon fired in a church, and sent the water clear into the mizen-top. Ithit them like strokes of a whip. They were drenched to the skin, chilledto the bone, and frozen to the heart with fear. They made acquaintancethat hour with Death. Ay, Death itself has no bitterness that forlorncluster did not feel: only the insensibility that ends that bitternesswas wanting.

Now the sea, you must know, was literally strewed with things out of the_Agra_; masts, rigging, furniture, tea-chests, bundles of canes, chairs,tables; but of all this jetsam, Dodd's eye had been for some little timefixed on one object: a live sailor drifting ashore on a great woodencase. It struck him after a while that the man made very little way, andat last seemed to go up and down in one place. By-and-bye he saw himnearer and nearer, and recognised him. It was one of the three washed offthe bowsprit.

He cried joyfully, "The tide has turned! here's Thompson coming out tosea."

Then there ensued a dialogue, incredible to landsmen, between these twosailors, the captain of the ship and the captain of the foretop, oneperched on a stationary fragment of that vessel, the other drifting on apianoforte, and both bawling at one another across the jaws of death.

"Thompson ahoy!"

"Hal-lo!"

"Whither bound?"

"Going out with the tide, and be d----d to me."

"What, can't ye swim ?"

"Like a brass figure-head. It's all over with poor Jack, sir."

"All over! Don't tell me! Look out now as you drift under our stern, andwe'll lower you the four-inch hawser."

By this time the shore was black with people, and a boat was brought downto the beach, but to attempt to launch it was to be sucked out to sea.

At present all eyes were fixed on Thompson drifting to destruction.

Dodd cut the four-inch hawser, and Vespasian, on deck, lowered it with aline, so that Thompson presently drifted right athwart it. "All right,sir!" said he, grasping it, and, amidst thundering acclamations, wasdrawn to land full of salt water and all but insensible. The piano landedat Dunkirk three weeks later.

In the bustle of this good and smart action the tide retired perceptibly.

By-and-bye the sea struck lower and with less weight.

At 9 P. M. Dodd took his little party down on deck again, being now thesafest place; for the mast might go.

It was a sad scene: the deck was now dry, and the dead bodies lay quietaround them with glassy eyes; and, grotesquely horrible, the long hair oftwo or three was stiff and crystallised with the saltpetre in the ship.

Mrs. Beresford clung to Vespasian: she held his bare black shoulder withone white and jewelled hand, and his wrist with the other, tight. "Oh,Mr. Black," said she, "how brave you are! It is incredible. Why, you cameback! I must feel a brave man with both my hands or I shall die. Yourskin is nice and soft, too. I shall never outlive this dreadful day."

And now that the water was too low to wash them off the hawser, severalof the ship's company came back to the ship to help the women down.

By noon the _Agra's_ deck was thirty feet from the sand. The rescued oneswanted to break their legs and necks, but Dodd would not permit eventhat. He superintended the whole manoeuvre, and lowered, first the dead,then the living, not omitting the poor goat, who was motionless and limpwith fright.

When they were all safe on the sand, Dodd stood alone upon the poop aminute, cheered by all the sailors, French and English, ashore, then sliddown a rope and rejoined his companions.

To their infinite surprise, the undaunted one was found to be snivelling.

"Oh, dear! what is the matter?" said Mrs. Beresford tenderly.

"The poor _Agra_, ma'am! She was such a beautiful sea-boat: and just lookat her now! Never sail again: never! never! She was a little crank inbeating, I can't deny it; but how she did fly with the wind abaft. Shesank a pirate in the straits, and weathered a hurricane off theMauritius; and after all for a lubber to go and lay her bones ashore in afair wind: poor dear beauty!"

He maundered thus, and kept turning back to look at the wreck, till hehappened to lay his hand on his breast He stopped in the middle of hisridiculous lament wore a look of self-reproach, and cast his eyes upwardin heartfelt gratitude.

The companions of so many adventures dispersed.

A hospitable mayoress entertained Mrs. Beresford and suite; and she tookto her bed, for she fell seriously ill as soon as ever she could do itwith impunity.

Colonel Kenealy went off to Paris: "I'll gain that, any way, by beingwrecked," said he.

If there be a lover of quadrupeds here, let him know that Billy'sweakness proved his strength. Being brandied by a good-natured Frenchsailor, he winked his eye; being brandied greatly, he staggered up andbutted his benefactor like a man.

Fullalove had dry clothes and a blazing fire ready for Dodd at a littlerude auberge. He sat over it and dried a few bank-notes. he had looseabout him, and examined his greater treasure, his children's. Thepocket-book was much stained, but no harm whatever done to the contents.

In the midst of this employment the shadow of an enormous head wasprojected right upon his treasure.

Turning with a start, he saw a face at the window: one of those vile mugswhich are found to perfection amongst the _canaille_ of the Frenchnation--bloated, blear-eyed, grizzly, and wild-beast like. The uglything, on being confronted, passed slowly out of the sun, and Doddthought no more of it.

The owner of this sinister visage was Andre Thibout, of whom it might besaid, like face like life; for he was one of those ill-omened creatureswho feed upon the misfortunes of their kind, and stand on shore in foulweather hoping the worst, instead of praying for the best: briefly, awrecker. He and his comrade, Jacques Moinard, had heard the _Agra's_ gunfired, and came down to batten on the wreck: but ho! at the turn of thetide, there were gensdarmes and soldiers lining the beach, and theBayonet interposed between Theft and Misfortune. So now the desperatepair were prowling about like hungry, baffled wolves, curses on theirlips and rage at their hearts.

Dodd was extremely anxious to get to Barkington before the news of thewreck; for otherwise he knew his wife and children would suffer a year'sagony in a single day. The only chance he saw was to get to Boulogne intime to catch the _Nancy_ sailing packet; for it was her day. But thenBoulogne was eight leagues distant, and there was no public conveyancegoing. Fullalove, entering heartily into his feelings, was gone to lookfor horses to hire, aided by the British Consul. The black hero wasupstairs clearing out with a pin two holes that had fallen into decay forwant of use. These holes were in his ears.

And now, worn out by anxiety and hard work, Dodd began to nod in hischair by the fire.

He had not been long asleep when the hideous face of Thibout reappearedat the window and watched him. Presently a low whistle was utteredoutside, and soon the two ruffians entered the room, and, finding thelandlady there as well as Dodd, called for a little glass apiece ofabsinthe. While drinking it, they cast furtive glances towards Dodd, andwaited till she should go about her business, and leave them alone withhim.

But the good woman surmised their looks, and knowing the character of themen, poured out a cup of coffee from a great metal reservoir by the fire,and waked Dodd without ceremony: "Voici votre cafe, Monsieur!" makingbelieve he had ordered it.

"Merci, Madame!" replied he, for his wife had taught him a little French.

"One may sleep _mal a propos,_" muttered the woman in his ear. "My man isat the fair, and there are people here who are not worth any greatthings."

Dodd rubbed his eyes and saw those two foul faces at the end of thekitchen: for such it was, though called _salle a manger._ "Humph!" saidhe; and instinctively buttoned his coat

At that Thibout touched Moinard's knee under the table.

Fullalove came in soon after to say he had got two horses, and they wouldbe here in a quarter of an hour.

"Well, but Vespasian? how is he to go?" inquired Dodd.

"Oh, we'll send him on ahead, and then ride and tie."

"No, no," said Dodd, "I'll go ahead. That will shake me up. I think Ishould tumble off a horse; I'm so dead sleepy."

Accordingly he started to walk on the road to Boulogne.

He had not been gone three minutes when Moinard sauntered out.

Moinard had not been gone two minutes when Thibout strolled out.

Moinard kept Dodd in sight and Thibout kept Moinard.

The horses were brought soon after, but unfortunately the pair did notstart immediately, though, had they known it, every moment was precious.They wasted time in argument. Vespasian had come down with a diamond ringin one ear, and a ruby in the other. Fullalove saw this retrograde step,and said grimly, "Have you washed but half your face, or is this a returnto savagery?"

Vespasian wore an air of offended dignity. "No, sar; these yardecorations come off a lady ob i cibilisation: Missy Beresford donated'em me. Says she, 'Massah Black'--yah! yah! She always nick-nominates dischild Massa Black-- 'while I was praying Goramighty for self andpickaninny, I seen you out of one corner of my eye admirationing myrings; den just you take 'em,' says dat ar aristocracy: 'for I don'tadmirationise 'em none: I've been shipwrecked.' So I took 'em widincredible condescension; and dat ar beautiful lady says to me, 'Oh, getalong wid your nonsense about coloured skins! I have inspectionated yourconduct, Massa Black, and likewise your performances on the slack rope,'says she, 'in time of shipwreck: and darn me,' says she, 'but you are aman, you are.' 'No, Missy,' says I superciliously, 'dis child am not aman, if you please, but a coloured gemman.'" He added, he had put them inhis ears because the biggest would not go on his little finger.

He was going to say "Cuss," but remembering his pupil's late heroicconduct, softened it down to Anomaly.

But Vespasian always measured the force of words by their length orobscurity. "Anomaly" cut him to the heart: he rode off in moody silenceand dejection, asking himself sorrowfully what he had done that such amountain of vituperation should fall on him. "Anomaly!!"

They cantered along in silence; for Fullalove was digesting this newtrait in his pupil, and asking himself could he train it out, or must hecross it out. Just outside the town they met Captain Robarts walking in;he had landed three miles off down the coast. "Hallo!" said Fullalove.

Fullalove replied, "Well, captain, that is only one mistake more you'vemade, I reckon."

About two English miles from the town they came to a long straight slopeup and down, where they could see a league before them; and there theycaught sight of David Dodd's tall figure mounting the opposite rise.

Behind him at some little distance were two men going the same way, buton the grass by the roadside, whereas David was on the middle of theroad.

"He walks well for Jacky Tar," said Fullalove.

"Iss, sar," said Vespasian sulkily; "but dis 'Analogy' tink he not walkso fast as those two behind him, cos they catch him up."

Now Vespasian had hardly uttered these words when a thing occurred, sosudden and alarming, that the speaker's eyes protruded, and he wasdumfounded a moment; the next a loud cry burst from both him and hiscompanion at once, and they lashed their horses to the gallop and wenttearing down the hill in a fury of rage and apprehension.

Mr. Fullalove was right, I think: a sailor is seldom a smart walker; butDodd was a cricketer, you know, as well. He swung along at a good paceand in high spirits. He had lost nothing but a few clothes, and aquadrant, and a chronometer; it was a cheap wreck to him, and a joyfulone: for peril past is present delight. He had saved his life, and whathe valued more, his children's money. Never was that dear companion ofhis perils so precious to him as now. One might almost fancy that, bysome strange sympathy, he felt the immediate happiness of his daughterdepended on it. Many in my day believe that human minds can thuscommunicate, overleaping material distances. Not knowing, I can't say.However, no such solution is really needed here. All the members of aunited and loving family feel together and work together--withoutspecific concert--though hemispheres lie between: it is one of thebeautiful traits of true family affection. Now the Dodds, father, mother,sister, brother, were more one in heart and love than any other family Iever saw: woe to them if they had not.

David, then, walked towards Boulogne that afternoon a happy man. Alreadyhe tasted by anticipation the warm caresses of his wife and children, andsaw himself seated at the hearth, with those beloved ones clusteringclose round him. How would he tell them Its adventures--Its dangers frompirates--Its loss at sea--Its recovery--Its wreck--Its coming ashore dryas a bone; and conclude by taking It out of his bosom and dropping It inhis wife's lap with "Cheer, boys, cheer!"

Trudging on in this delightful reverie, his ear detected a pitpat at somedistance behind him: he looked round with very slight curiosity and sawtwo men coming up. Even in that hasty glance he recognised the foulfaceof Andre Tiribout, a face not to be forgotten in a day. I don't know howit was, but he saw in a moment that face was after him to rob him, and henaturally enough concluded It was their object.

And he was without a weapon, and they were doubtless armed. Indeed,Thibout was swinging a heavy cudgel.

Poor Dodd's mind went into a whirl and his body into a cold sweat. Insuch moments men live a year. To gain a little time he walked swiftly on,pretending not to have noticed them: but oh! his eyes roved wildly toeach side of the road for a chance of escape. He saw none. To his rightwas a precipitous rock; to his left a profound ravine with a torrentbelow, and the sides scantily clothed with fir-trees and bushes: he was,in fact, near the top of a long rising ground called _"La MauvaiseCote,_" on account of a murder committed there two hundred years ago.

Presently he heard the men close behind him. At the same moment he saw atthe side of the ravine a flint stone about the size of two fists: he madebut three swift strides, snatched it up, and turned to meet the robbers,drawing himself up high, and showing fight in every inch.

The men were upon him. His change of attitude was so sudden and fierythat they recoiled a step. But it was only for a moment: they had gonetoo far to retreat; they divided, and Thibout attacked him on his leftwith uplifted cudgel, and Moinard on his right with a long glitteringknife. The latter, to guard his head from the stone, whipped off his hatand held it before his head: but Dodd was what is called "left handed:""ambidexter" would be nearer the mark (he carved and wrote with his righthand, heaved weights and flung cricket-balls with his left). He steppedforward, flung the stone in Thibout's face with perfect precision, andthat bitter impetus a good thrower lends at the moment of delivery, andalmost at the same moment shot out his right hand and caught Moinard bythe throat. Sharper and fiercer collision was never seen than of thesethree.

Thibout's face crashed; his blood squirted all round the stone, and eightyards off lay that assailant on his back.

Moinard was more fortunate: he got two inches of his knife into Dodd'sleft shoulder, at the very moment Dodd caught him in his right-hand vice.And now one vengeful hand of iron grasped him felly by the throat;another seized his knife arm and twisted it back like a child's. Hekicked and struggled furiously, but in half a minute the mighty Englisharm and iron fingers held the limp body of Jacques Moinard with its kneesknocking, temples bursting, throat relaxed, eyes protruding, and lividtongue lolling down to his chin. A few seconds more, and, with the samestalwart arm that kept his relaxed and sinking body from falling, Doddgave him one fierce whirl round to the edge of the road, then put a footto his middle, and spurned his carcase with amazing force and fury downthe precipice. Crunch! crunch! it plunged from tree to tree, from bush tobush, and at last rolled into a thick bramble, and there stuck in theform of a crescent But Dodd had no sooner sent him headlong by thatmighty effort, than his own sight darkened, his head swam, and, afterstaggering a little way, he sank down in a state bordering oninsensibility. Meantime Fullalove and Vespasian were galloping down theopposite hill to his rescue.

Unfortunately, Andre Thibout was not dead, nor even mortally wounded. Hewas struck on the nose and mouth; that nose was flat for the rest of hislife, and half of his front teeth were battered out of their sockets, buthe fell, not from the brain being stunned, but the body driven to earthby the mere physical force of so momentous a blow, knocked down like aninepin. He now sat up bewildered, and found himself in a pool of blood,his own. He had little sensation of pain, but he put his hand to hisface, and found scarce a trace of his features, and his hand came awaygory. He groaned.

Rising to his feet, he saw Dodd sitting at some distance; his firstimpulse was to fly from so terrible an antagonist, but, as he made forthe ravine, he observed that Dodd was in a helpless condition, woundedperhaps by Moinard. And where was Moinard?

Nothing visible of him but his knife: that lay glittering in the road.

Thibout with anxious eye turned towards Dodd, kneeled to pick it up, andin the act a drop of his own blood fell on the dust beside it. He snarledlike a wounded tiger, spat out half-a-dozen teeth, and crept on tiptoe tohis safe revenge.

Awake from your lethargy or you are a dead man!

No! Thibout got to him unperceived, and the knife glittered over hishead.

At this moment the air seemed to fill with clattering hoofs and voices,and a pistol-shot rang. Dodd heard and started, and so saw his peril. Heput up his left hand to parry the blow, but feebly. Luckily for himThibout's eyes were now turned another way, and glaring with stupidterror out of his mutilated visage: a gigantic mounted fiend, with blackface and white gleaming, rolling eyes was coming at him like the wind,uttering horrid howls. Thibout launched himself at the precipice with ashriek of dismay, and went rolling after his comrade; but ere he had goneten yards he fell across a young larch-tree and hung balanced. Up camethe foaming horses: Fullalove dismounted hastily and fired threedeliberate shots down at Thibout from his revolver. He rolled off, andnever stopped again till he splashed into the torrent, and lay therestaining it with blood from his battered face and perforated shoulder.

Vespasian jumped off, and with glistening eyes administered some goodbrandy to Dodd. He, unconscious of his wound, a slight one, relievedtheir anxiety by assuring them somewhat faintly he was not hurt, butthat, ever since that "tap on the head" he got in the Straits of Gaspar,any angry excitement told on him, made his head swim, and his templesseem to swell from the inside.

"I should have come off second-best but for you, my dear friends. Shakehands over it, do! O, Lord bless you! Lord bless you both. As for you,Vespasian, I do think you are my guardian angel. Why, this is the secondtime you've saved my life. No, it isn't: for it's the third."

"Now you git along, Massa Cap'n," said Vespasian. "You berry good man,ridicalous good man; and dis child ar'nt no gardening angel at all; he ara darned Anatomy" (with such a look of offended dignity at Fullalove).

After examining the field of battle and comparing notes, they mountedDodd on Vespasian's horse, and walked quietly till Dodd's head gotbetter; and then they cantered on three abreast, Vespasian in the middlewith one sinewy hand on each horse's mane; and such was his muscularpower, that he often relieved his feet by lifting himself clean into theair, and the rest of the time his toe but touched the ground, and hesailed like an ostrich and grinned and chattered like a monkey.

Sad to relate, neither Thibout nor Moinard was ended. The guillotinestood on its rights. Meantime, what was left of them crawled back to thetown stiff and sore, and supped together--Moinard on liquids only--andvowed revenge on all wrecked people.

The three reached Boulogne in time for the _Nancy,_ and put Dodd onboard: the pair decided to go to the Yankee Paradise--Paris.

They parted with regret and tenderly, like old tried friends; andVespasian told Dodd, with tears in his eyes, that though he was in pointof fact only a darned Anemo, he felt like a coloured gemman at partingfrom his dear old Captain.

The master of the _Nancy_ knew Dodd well, and gave him a nice cot tosleep in. He tumbled in with a bad headache and quite worn out, and neverwoke for fifteen hours.

And when he did wake, he was safe at Barkington.

He and It landed on the quay. He made for home.

On the way he passed Hardie's bank, a firm synonymous in his mind withthe Bank of England.

A thrill of joy went through him. Now it _was_ safe. When he first sewedIt on in China, It seemed secure nowhere except on his own person. Butsince then, the manifold perils by sea and land It had encounteredthrough being on him, had caused a strong reaction in his mind on thatpoint. He longed to see It safe out of his own hands and in good custody.

He made for Hardie's door with a joyful rush, waved his cap over his headin triumph, and entered the bank with It.

Ah!

CHAPTER XV

CHRONOLOGY.--The Hard Cash sailed from Canton months before the boat raceat Henley recorded in Chapter I., but it landed in Barkington a fortnightafter the last home event I recorded in its true series.

Now this fortnight, as it happens, was fruitful of incidents, and must bedealt with at once. After that, "Love" and "Cash," the convergingbranches of this story, will flow together in one stream.

Alfred Hardie kept faith with Mrs. Dodd, and, by an effort sheappreciated, forbore to express his love for Julia except by the pen. Hetook in Lloyd's shipping news, and got it down by rail, in hopes therewould be something about the _Agra;_ then he could call at Albion Villa.Mrs. Dodd had given him that loophole: meantime he kept moping for aninvitation, which never came.

Julia was now comparatively happy, and so indeed was Alfred; but then themale of our species likes to be superlatively happy, not comparatively;and that Mrs. Dodd forgot or perhaps had not observed.

One day Sampson was at Albion Villa, and Alfred knew it. Now, though itwas a point of honour with poor Alfred not to hang about after Juliauntil her father's return, he had a perfect right to lay in wait forSampson and hear something about her; and he was so deep in love thateven a word at second-hand from her lips was a drop of dew to his heart.

So he strolled up towards the villa. He had nearly reached it, when awoman ran past him making the most extraordinary sounds: I can onlydescribe it as screaming under her breath. Though he only saw her back,he recognised Mrs. Maxley. One back differeth from another, whatever youmay have been told to the contrary in novels and plays. He called to her:she took no notice, and darted wildly through the gate of Albion Villa.Alfred's curiosity was excited, and he ventured to put his head over thegate. But Mrs. Maxley had disappeared.

Alfred had half a mind to go in and inquire if anything was the matter:it would be a good excuse.

While he hesitated, the dining-room window was thrown violently up, andSampson looked out. "Hy! Hardie! my good fellow! for Heaven's sake a fly,and a fast one!"

It was plain something very serious had occurred: so Alfred flew towardsthe nearest fly-stand. On the way, he fell in with a chance fly drawn upat a public-house; he jumped on the box and drove rapidly towards AlbionVilla. Sampson was hobbling to meet him--he had sprained his ankle orwould not have asked for a conveyance--to save time he got up besideAlfred, and told him to drive hard to Little Friar Street. On the way heexplained hurriedly: Mrs. Maxley had burst in on him at Albion Villa tosay her husband was dying in torment: and indeed the symptoms she gavewere alarming, and, if correct, looked very like lockjaw. But herdescription had been cut short by a severe attack, which choked her andturned her speechless and motionless, and white to the very lips.

"'Oho,' sis I, 'brist-pang!' And at such a time, ye know. But these womenare as unseasonable as they are unreasonable. Now, angina pictoris orbrist-pang is not curable through the lungs, nor the stomick, nor theliver, nor the stays, nor the saucepan, as the bunglintinkerindox of theschools pretind, but only through that mighty mainspring the Brain; andinstid of going meandering to the Brain round by the stomick, and sogiving the wumman lots o' time to die first, which is the scholasticpractice, I wint at the Brain direct, took a puff o' chlorofm put m' armround her neck, laid her back in a chair--she didn't struggle, for, whenthis disorrder grips ye, ye cant move hand nor foot--and had my lady intothe land of Nod in half a minute; thin off t' her husband; so here's th'Healer between two stools--spare the whipcord, spoil the knacker!--itwould be a good joke if I was to lose both pashints for want of a littleunbeequity, wouldn't it--Lash the lazy vagabin!--Not that I care: whatinterest have I in their lives? they never pay: but ye see custom'ssecond nature; an d'Ive formed a vile habit; I've got to be a Healeramong the killers: an d'a Triton among--the millers. Here we are at last,Hiven be praised." And he hopped into the house faster than most peoplecan run on a good errand. Alfred flung the reins to a cad and followedhim.

The room was nearly full of terrified neighbours: Sampson shouldered themall roughly out of his way, and there, on a bed, lay Maxley's gauntfigure in agony.

His body was drawn up by the middle into an arch, and nothing touched thebed but the head and the heels; the toes were turned back in the mostextraordinary contortion, and the teeth set by the rigour of theconvulsion, and in the man's white face and fixed eyes were the horrorand anxiety, that so often show themselves when the body feels itself inthe grip of Death.

Mr. Osmond the surgeon was there; he had applied a succession of hotcloths to the pit of the stomach, and was trying. to get laudanum downthe throat, but the clenched teeth were impassable.

He now looked up and said politely, "Ah! Dr. Sampson, I am glad to seeyou here. The seizure is of a cataleptic nature, I apprehend. Thetreatment hitherto has been hot epithems to the abdomen, and----"

Here Sampson, who had examined the patient keenly, and paid no moreattention to Osmond than to a fly buzzing, interrupted him asunceremoniously--

"Poisoned," said he philosophically.

"Poisoned!!" screamed the people.

"Poisoned!" cried Mr. Osmond, in whose little list of stereotypedmaladies poisoned had no place. "Is there any one you have reason tosuspect?"

"I don't suspect, nor conject, sir: I know. The man is poisoned, thesubstance strychnine. Now stand out of the way you gaping gabies, and letme work. Hy, young Oxford! you are a man: get behind and hold both hisarms for your life! That's you!"

He whipped off his coat laid hold of Osmond's epithems, chucked themacross the room, saying, "You may just as well squirt rose-water at ahouse on fire;" drenched his handkerchief with chloroform, sprang uponthe patient like a mountain cat and chloroformed him with all his might.

Attacked so skilfully and resolutely, Maxley resisted little for sostrong a man; but the potent poison within fought virulently: as a proof,the chloroform had to be renewed three times before it could produce anyeffect. At last the patient yielded to the fumes and became insensible.

Then the arched body subsided and the rigid muscles relaxed and turnedsupple. Sampson kneaded the man like dough by way of comment.

He then inquired if any one in the room had noticed at what intervals oftime the pains came on.

"I am sorry to say it is continuous," said Osmond.

"Mai--dearr--sirr, nothing on airth is continuous: iverything hasparoxysms and remissions--from a toothache t' a cancer."

He repeated his query in various forms, till at last a little girlsqueaked out, "If--_you_---please, sir, the throes do come about everyten minutes, for I was a looking at the clock; I carries father hisdinner at twelve."

"If you please, ma'am, there's half a guinea for you for not being suchan' ijjit as the rest of the world, especially the Dockers." And hejerked her half a sovereign.

A stupor fell on the assembly. They awoke from it to examine the coin,and see if it was real, or only yellow air.

Maxley came to and gave a sigh of relief. When he had been insensible,yet out of pain, nearly eight minutes by the clock, Sampson chloroformedhim again. "I'll puzzle ye, my friend strych," said he. "How will ye getyour perriodical paroxysms when the man is insensible? The Dox say y' actdirect on the spinal marrow. Well, there's the spinal marrow where youfound it just now. Act on it again, my lad! I give ye leave--if ye can.Ye can't; bekase ye must pass through the Brain to get there: and Ioccupy the Brain with a swifter ajint than y' are, and mean to keep y'out of it till your power to kill evaporates, being a vigitable."

With this his spirits mounted, and he indulged in a harmless andfavourite fiction: he feigned the company were all males and medicalstudents, Osmond included, and he the lecturer. "Now, jintlemen," saidhe, "obsairve the great Therey of the Perriodeecity and Remitteney of alldisease, in conjunckshin with its practice. All diseases have paroxysmsand remissions, which occur at intervals; sometimes it's a year,sometimes a day, an hour, ten minutes; but whatever th' interval, theyare true to it: they keep time. Only when the disease is retirin, theremissions become longer, the paroxysms return at a greater interval, andjust the revairse when the pashint is to die. This, jintlemen, is man'slife from the womb to the grave: the throes that precede his birth areremittent like ivery thing else, but come at diminished intervals when hehas really made up his mind to be born (his first mistake, sirs, but nothis last); and the paroxysms of his mortal disease come at shorterintervals when he is really goon off the hooks: but stillchronometrically; just as watches keep time whether they go fast or slow.Now, jintlemen, isn't this a beautiful Therey?"

"Oh, mercy! Oh, good people help me! Oh, Jesus Christ have pity on me!"And the sufferer's body was bent like a bow, and his eyes filled withhorror, and his toes pointed at his chin.

The Doctor hurled himself on the foe. "Come," said he, "smell to this,lad! That's right! He is better already, jintlemen, or he couldn't howl,ye know. Deevil a howl in um before I gave um puff chlorofm. Ah! wouldye? would ye?"

"Oh! oh! oh! oh! ugh!----ah!"

The Doctor got off the insensible body, and resumed his lecture calmly,like one who has disposed of some childish interruption. "And now to th'application of the Therey: If the poison can reduce the tin minutes'interval to five minutes, this pashint will die; and if I can get the tinminutes up t' half hour, this pashint will live. Any way, jintlemen, wewon't detain y' unreasonably: the case shall be at an end by oneo'clock."

On hearing this considerate stipulation, up went three women's aprons totheir eyes.

"Alack! poor James Maxley! he is at his last hour: it be just gonetwelve, and a dies at one."

Sampson turned on the weepers. "Who says that, y' ijjits? I said the casewould end at one: a case ends when the pashint gets well or dies."

"Oh, that is good news for poor Susan Maxley; her man is to be well byone o'clock, Doctor says."

Sampson groaned, and gave in. he was strong, but not strong enough tomake the populance suspend an opinion.

Yet, methinks it might be done: by chloroforming them.

The spasms came at longer intervals and less violent, and Maxley got sofond of the essence of Insensibility, that he asked to have some in hisown hand to apply at the first warning of the horrible pains.

Sampson said, "Any fool can complete the cure; and, by way of practicalcomment, left him in Mr. Osmond's charge; but with an understanding thatthe treatment should not be varied; that no laudanum should be given;but, in due course, a stiff tumbler of brandy and water, or two. "If hegets drunk, all the better; a little intoxication weakens the body'smemory of the pain it has endured, and so expedites the cure. Now off wego to th' other."

"The body's memory!" said Mr. Osmond to himself: "what on earth does thequack mean?"

The driver _de jure_ of the fly was not quite drunk enough to lose hishorse and vehicle without missing them. He was on the look out for therobber, and as Alfred came round the corner full pelt, darted at thereins with a husky remonstrance, and Alfred cut into him with the whip:an angry explanation--a guinea--and behold the driver sitting behindcomplacent and nodding.

Arrived at Albion Villa, Alfred asked Sampson submissively if he mightcome in and see the wife cured.

"Why, of course," said Sampson, not knowing the delicate position.

"Then ask me in before Mrs. Dodd," murmured Alfred coaxingly.

"Oo, ay," said the Doctor knowingly: "I see."

Mrs. Maxley was in the dining-room: she had got well of herself, but wascrying bitterly, and the ladies would not let her go home yet; theyfeared the worst and that some one would blurt it out to her.

To this anxious trio entered Sampson radiant. "There, it's all right.Come, little Maxley, ye needn't cry; he has got lots more mischief to doin the world yet; but, O wumman, it is lucky you came to me and not toany of the tinkering dox. No more cat and dog for you and him but for theChronothairmal Therey. And you may bless my puppy's four bones too: heran and stole a fly like a man, and drove hilter-skilter. Now, lf I hadgot to your house two minutes later, your Jamie would have lairned thegreat secret ere this." He threw up the window. "Haw you! come away andreceive the applause due from beauty t' ajeelity."

Alfred came in timidly, and was received with perfect benignity andself-possession by Mrs. Dodd, but Julia's face was dyed with blushes, andher eyes sparkled the eloquent praise she was ashamed to speak beforethem all. But such a face as her scarce needed the help of a voice atsuch a time. And indeed both the lovers' faces were a pretty sight and astudy. How they stole loving glances, but tried to keep within bounds,and not steal more than three per minute! and how unconscious theyendeavoured to look the intervening seconds! and what windows were thedemure complacent visages they thought they were making shutters of!Innocent love has at least this advantage over melodramatic, that it canextract exquisite sweetness out of so small a thing. These sweetheartswere not alone, could not open their hearts, must not even gaze too long;yet to be in the same room even on such terms was a taste of Heaven.

"But, dear heart!" said Mrs. Maxley, "ye don't tell me what he ailed.Ma'am, if you had seen him you would have said he was taken for death."

"Pray what _is_ the complaint?" inquired Mrs. Dodd.

"Oh, didn't I tell ye? Poisoned."

This intelligence was conveyed with true scientific calmness, andreceived with feminine ejaculations of horror. Mrs. Maxley was indignantinto the bargain: "Don't ye go giving my house an ill name! We keeps nopoison."

"Now isn't this lamentable? Why, arsenic is a mital; strychnine avigitable. N'hist me! Your man was here seeking strychnine to poison hismouse; a harmless, domistic, necessary mouse. I told him mice were a partof Nature as much as Maxleys, and life as sweet tit as tim: but he wasdif to scientific and chrisehin preceps; so I told him to go to theDeevil: 'I will,' sis he, and went t' a docker. The two assassins havepoisoned the poor beastie between 'em; and thin, been the greatest miserin the world, except one, he will have roasted his victim, and ate her onthe sly, imprignated with strychnine. 'I'll steal a march on t'othermiser,' sis he; and that's you: t' his brain flew the strychnine: hisbrain sint it to his spinal marrow: and we found my lorrd bent like abow, and his jaw locked, and nearer knowin the great secret than any manin England will be this year to live: and sairves the assassinating oldvagabin right."

"Heaven forgive you, Doctor," said Mrs. Maxley, half mechanically.

"For curin a murrderer? Not likely."

Mrs. Maxley, who had shown signs of singular uneasiness during Sampson'sexplanation, now rose, and said in a very peculiar tone she must go homedirectly.

Mrs. Dodd seemed to enter into her feelings, and made her go in the fly,taking care to pay the fare and the driver out of her own purse. As thewoman got into the fly, Sampson gave her a piece of friendly andpractical advice. "Nixt time he has a mind to breakfast on strychnine,you tell me; and I'll put a pinch of arsenic in the salt-cellar, and curehim safe as the bank. But this time he'd have been did and stiff longbefore such a slow ajint as arsenic could get a hold on um."

They sat down to luncheon, but neither Alfred nor Julia fed much, exceptupon sweet stolen looks; and soon the active Sampson jumped up, andinvited Alfred to go round his patients. Alfred could not decline, butmade his adieux with regret so tender and undisguised, that Julia's sweeteyes filled, and her soft hand instinctively pressed his at parting toconsole him. She blushed at herself afterwards, but at the time she wasthinking only of him.

Maxley and his wife came up in the evening with a fee. They had put theirheads together, and proffered one guinea. "Man and wife be one flesh, youknow, Doctor," said the rustic miser.

At all events, he must accept this basket of gudgeons Maxley had broughtalong. Being poisoned was quite out of Maxley's daily routine, and had sounsettled him, that he had got up, and gone fishing--to the amazement ofthe parish.

Sampson inspected the basket. "Why, they are only fish," said he; _"I wasin hopes they were pashints._" He accepted the gudgeons, and inquired howMaxley got poisoned. It came out that Mrs. Maxley, seeing her husband setapart a portion of his Welsh rabbit, had "grizzled," and asked what thatwas for; and being told "for the mouse," and to "mind her own business,"had grizzled still more, and furtively conveyed a portion back into thepan for her master's own use. She had been quaking dismally all theafternoon at what she had done, but finding Maxley--hard but just--didnot attack her for an involuntary fault, she now brazened it out, andsaid, "Men didn't ought to have poison in the house unbeknown to theirwives. Jem had got no more than he worked for," &c. But, like a woman,she vowed vengeance on the mouse: whereupon Maxley threatened her withthe marital correction of neck-twisting if she laid a finger on it.

"My eyes be open now to what a poor creature do feel as dies poisoned.Let her a be: there's room in our place for her and we."

Next day he met Alfred, and thanked him with warmth, almost with emotion."There ain't many in Barkington as ever done me a good turn, MasterAlfred; you be one on 'em: you comes after the Captain in my book now."

Alfred suggested that his claims were humble compared with Sampson's.

"No, no," said Maxley, going down to his whisper, and looking, monstrouswise: "Doctor didn't go out of his business for me: you did."

The sage miser's gratitude had not time to die a natural death beforecircumstances occurred to test it. On the morning of that eventful daywhich concluded my last chapter, he received a letter from Canada. Hiswife was out with eggs; so he caught little Rose Sutton, that had morethan once spelled an epistle for him; and she read it out in a loud andreckless whine: "'At -- noon -- this -- very -- daie -- Muster --Hardie's a-g-e-n-t, aguent -- d-i-s dis, h-o-n -- honour_ed_ --dis-honour_ed_--a--bill; and sayed.'" Here she made a full stop. Then onto the next verse.

"'There -- were no -- more -- asses.'"

"Mercy on us! but it can't be asses, wench: drive your spe-ad into'tagain."

"Worse than that--worse!" groaned Maxhey, trembling all over."Hush!--hold your tongue! Give me that letter! Don't you never tellnobody nothing of what you have been a reading to me, andI'll--I'll--It's only Jem's fun: he is allus running his rigs--that's agood wench now, and I'll give ye a halfpenny."

"La, Daddy," said the child, opening her eyes, "I never heeds what I_re-ads:_ I be wrapped up in the spelling. Dear heart, what a sight oflong words folks puts in a letter, more than ever drops out of theirmouths; which their fingers be longer than their tongues, I do suppose."

"There, there!" said Maxley, deprecatingly; "here's two apples for ye; yecan't get them for less: and a halfpenny or a haporth is all one to you,but it is a great odds to me. And apples they rot; halfpence don't."

It was now nine o'clock. The bank did not open till ten; but Maxley wentand hung about the door, to be the first applicant.

As he stood there trembling with fear lest the bank should not open atall, he thought hard, and the result was a double resolution: he wouldhave his money out to the last shilling; and, this done, would button uphis pockets and padlock his tongue. It was not his business to take careof his neighbours; nor to blow the Hardies, if they paid him his money ondemand. "So not a word to my missus, nor yet to the town-crier," said he.

Ten o'clock struck, and the bank shutters remained up. Five minutes more,and the watcher was in agony. Three minutes more, and up came a boy ofsixteen whistling, and took down the shutters with an indifference thatamazed him. "Bless your handsome face!" said Maxley with a sigh ofrelief.

He now summoned up all his firmness, and, having recourse to an art inwhich these shrewd rustics are supreme, made his face quite inexpressive,and so walked into the bank the every-day Maxley externally, but within avolcano ready to burst if there should be the slightest hesitation to payhim his money.